Jan 18, 2008 By Bobby Fox 4 min read

MAPLETOWN – One of the story lines heading into the Section 2-A showdown between Mapletown and Jefferson-Morgan was the return of Rockets head coach Fred Morecraft to his old stomping grounds. Morecraft spent seven years as the head coach of the Maples before resigning prior to the 2006-2007 campaign. His brother and former Mapletown assistant John Morecraft and his new assistant Drew Denham, who is also his brother, joined Morecraft in his return.

“All of us were real nervous,” Morecraft said. “It was a warm reception and it was good to see some of the kids that we used to coach.”

While the Maple fans were kind to their old head coach, the Maples themselves weren’t as easy on their opponents, especially senior guard Jake Shiflett, who poured in a game-high 23 points to lead his team to a 58-52 victory.

The man who replaced Morecraft last year, Adam Checton, could barely control his praise for Shiflett’s efforts.

“Jake came out on fire in the first half,” Checton said. “He slowed down a little in the second half, but he was great.”

Behind nine first-quarter points from Shiflett, the Maples (2-2, 8-6) jumped out to a 14-9 lead after the first period of play. Shiflett did the damage in an efficient manner by connecting on three-of-four field goal tries. He also nailed two-of-two free throw tries.

Mapletown extended their lead to six by out-performing their opponents 14-13 in the second period. Again, it was Shiflett who did most of the work as he added six more points to his total on a pair of three-pointers. Fellow guard Jarrett Porterfield added six points of his own in the second.

“Jarrett came in to this game as a sophomore and you can’t ask for much better,” Checton said.

Leading 28-22 at halftime, the Rockets (1-4, 4-12) matched the Maples basket-for-basket, literally.

Each team put up 14 points in the third and 16 points in the fourth.

With the two teams trading scores constantly through out the second half, J-M was able to cut the lead to 39-36 after a 6-0 run midway through the third quarter.

Trailing 44-42 halfway through the fourth, Jefferson reserve Brent Moskola tipped in his only basket of the game to tie the contest with 4:03 left. The tie was short-lived as Mapletown’s Ryan Wilson responded with a strong drive and lay up to get the lead right back at 46-44.

As they had done all second half, neither team was able to gain a good hold on the lead. With 55 seconds left in the contest, forward Ryan Edwards managed to tip in one of his own misses to cut the Maples’ lead down to 51-49. However, Shiflett nailed down two free throws to build the lead back to four at 53-49. Porterfield added four more from the foul line to make it 57-49.

The Rockets made one last effort to pull out a miracle win with 11.4 seconds remaining as Dave Montibeller drilled a trey, cutting the Maples’ advantage to 57-52. But, Shiflett hit on one last foul shot and time expired to seal the win, which is Mapletown’s second in a row.

“I hope we continue to play this way,” Checton said. “We stuck it out and hit our free throws. We played big.”

Though they are currently not in position to make the playoffs, Morecraft is still optimistic about his team’s chances to make a run in the second half of the season.

“We need to improve our offense a little bit,” Morecraft said. “It’s a tight section and we have another time through it.”

Along with Shiflett’s 23 points, Porterfield poured in 14 and Wilson added nine. Mike Mox led the Rockets with 20 points, Edwards chipped in 11 and Justin Falcon had nine.